Up north and back again

So, what has happened since our last update?

Well, on the 26th we started the drive up to Antnäs, Luleå. It took almost exactly 12 hrs. We felt quite sorry for poor Elias having to sit for so long in the car, but on the whole he handled it well.

There wasn't much opportunity for Grandma Inger and Granddad Stig to cuddle Elias when we finally got there since he, quite understandably, was a bit grumpy. But since we were staying a few days hopefully they got to cuddle him enough to last until they see him early September. It seems I didn't take many pictures of Elias with his grandparents but here is one with his granddad anyway, and as you can see Stig is very well equipped for the climate up north!
On Friday my cousin Erika came around and spent almost the whole day in Antnäs. The weather was surprisingly nice and we had a lovely day, playing crouqet and getting a bit of sunburn. For the first 4 hours of Erikas visit Elias slept, but he did finally wake up so she could cuddle him a bit too. I guess he was a bit worn out from the long drive the day before.


On Saturday the parts of the family that lives in Skellefteå came so Elias got to meet two of his great uncles and his great grandma. Of course we took the opportunity to take the classic 4-generations photo.
On Saturday the weather turned for the worse and the rest of the time up north we didn't really do much apart from going for a few walks, played with Elias, played cards (without Elias) and went in to town once. Oh, and I almost forgot, we went to CARBINGO as well. Elias was a big hit amongs all the old biddies!

On Wednesday my aunt, Bert-Ola, and Erika came for a visit. Auntie Anna-Lisa and Bert-Ola had been on holiday in Stockholm the entire time we were in Luleå, but luckily we managed to meet up a few hours after they landed. Dad went to pick them up from the airport and then they came around to mum and dad's. It was so nice to get to see them, being up north a whole week without seeing auntie just wouldn't have felt right. And of course we wanted to show off Elias as well!
The drive back was pretty much like the drive there. Ok for most of the time, but quite hard at the end when Elias was getting real fed up.

After spending the week at mum and dad's we got quite keen on getting a house (again) so on the Sunday after we got back we went to a few house showings but didn't find anything perfect.
We weren't really expecting to though, it was more of a research trip. We have booked an appointment at the bank though to see how much we can afford. It is quite scary to think about getting a house since it is so expensive and we don't really know anything about houses so there is always the risk of getting stung bad by buying a crappy one. Hopefully we will find something nice in the end though.

Monday and Tuesday we went to visit Anna and Patrik on "the Island". Patrik's mum has a summer house on a tiny island about an hour north of Uppsala and we have been talking about going there for years and we finally managed to find a time that suited us all. The weather was amazing when we were there, almost too nice considering the little boys. Unfortunatelly we didn't take many pictures of the lovely place, maybe it was too hot, but here is one at least..
(There are more pictures from Antnäs in the Month 2 album and we have now started the Month 3 album)